A view from the Target parking lot
lizzard_nyc
Registered Users Posts: 4,056 Major grins
These were taken about 3 months ago, but still wanted to share.
I posted the first shot in "cool shots" about three months ago in case it looks familiar--but it's part of this series.
This parking lot is one of my favorite pieces of architecture in my neighborhood. There are quite a few very "modern" looking buildings that were built in the mid 60's during the World's Fair in Queens, NY (all within half a mile from me). This lot was built in 1965 (used to be the Macys lot, and it has a great little story behind it if anyone cares to read it http://www.forgotten-ny.com/STREET%20SCENES/elmhurst/elmhurst.html
1.
A view of the city in silhouette from Elmhurst, Queens, NYC
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The neighborhood.
3.
Queens Boulevard AKA the Boulevard of Death--12 lanes of traffic which divides Queens--too many people get hit crossing this street, hence the nickname. Doesn't look so menacing from this view--try crossing it though.
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I posted the first shot in "cool shots" about three months ago in case it looks familiar--but it's part of this series.
This parking lot is one of my favorite pieces of architecture in my neighborhood. There are quite a few very "modern" looking buildings that were built in the mid 60's during the World's Fair in Queens, NY (all within half a mile from me). This lot was built in 1965 (used to be the Macys lot, and it has a great little story behind it if anyone cares to read it http://www.forgotten-ny.com/STREET%20SCENES/elmhurst/elmhurst.html
1.
A view of the city in silhouette from Elmhurst, Queens, NYC
2.
The neighborhood.
3.
Queens Boulevard AKA the Boulevard of Death--12 lanes of traffic which divides Queens--too many people get hit crossing this street, hence the nickname. Doesn't look so menacing from this view--try crossing it though.
4.
3.
Liz A.
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Comments
I'm no mod but perhaps these shots are taking the term 'street' a bit too literally? Well, time to go put on my worm wrangling gear now that I've let them out...
The first two shots are some of my early favorites too, in particular the first one with the "early bird special" sign over it--I can't tell you how often people thought it was The Guggenheim".
Funny I didn't think twice about posting these here, thought they screamed "urban", but thanks for opening up that can
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Okay - as everyone knows, this doesn't fit my view of 'street,' but that doesn't matter
I really like 1-3. Four fails for a simple reason - you were trying to show the 12-lane, death alley aspect of Queens Blvd - and to do that you shoot have been shooting it when it was packed with traffic in both directions, not free-flowing and relatively empty.
The various problems with the other images relate to your lack of software, and so can't be helped - for example, I want much more contrast in the sign on top of the garage in the first image; I want the color corrected in the second - which is a lovely, bucolic vision of Queens, one which you, as a resident, know to be real, but one which I'm sure comes as a shock to our friends who know nothing about NYC but that which they see on Law and Order and The Apprentice.
And on number three, I'd want you to do some PS work on the sign, so that we could really read at least the top line, which I can just make out and appears to be a perfect commentary on the image.
Anyway, your eye is excellent - your 'equipment' is lacking, but that will change with time.
"He not busy being born is busy dying." Bob Dylan
"The more ambiguous the photograph is, the better it is..." Leonard Freed
Thanks B.D.
I want to do my neighborhood justice--it's certainly a mix, it has that "Normal Rockwell" feel on one side of Queens Boulevard, blue collar, firemen, teachers, sanitation workers who are 2nd 3rd generation from Europe, complete with American flags on their lawn, and on the other (the side I'm on) it's highly immigrant,-it just blows my mind this mix--I want to try and capture that--I will be posting more, particularly from "my side of the railroad tracks".
Looking back at the Boulevard of Death--you are right, I totally missed it--I've been wanting to go up to that lot anyway and take more shots--it's a crazy 360 view of my town. Maybe I can reshoot the Boulevard in all its congested glory.
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I was subletting my friend's house in Astoria -I was singing in NYC, and she was out of town for a month. Perfect match! I decided that my suburban self simply HAD to find a Target, so I went in search around dusk one summer evening....
Liz, if documentary 'tography is meant to evoke a strong response, you've certainly done that, so I call it a winning series!!!
The first one almost works as an abstract. Yes, it reminded me of the NY Guggenheim, and I had to laugh when I read it was a parking lot (I hate the Guggenheim, but I digress). Unlike BD, I would dodge or clone the lettering at the top out of existence.
The neighborhood shot is nice. It almost looks like a small town with a church on a hill and all. I never would have thought of NYC.
Nice set.
Great memory--nothing like getting lost on that Boulevard!!! I'm not afraid to get hit in my car, although I have been rearended on that same street, I'm afraid to mow down a pedestrian trying to make a fast turn against traffic--but well worth it for that Target:)
I live not 3 blocks from there so anytime you're in town...
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Thanks Richard.
I can't bring myself to edit that Target lot shot--I like the letters being there and I like that they are not immediately visible. People get nice and comfortable thinking yea yea another Guggenheim shot--then if they look closer they spot it and chuckle.
Let me tell you a quick story about that nice church on a hill--It's Ascension church and I put my son there for summer camp thinking nice Catholic school nice neighborhood---I went to pick him up on afternoon towards the end of the summer and I hear this 8-9 year old kid outside on his cellphone "you dont' give me my money and I'll f*&^ing shank you, you hear me MF?!!!"--then he hangs up and casually walks back into the summercamp. If my son had not been attending said camp I would have been on the floor laughing. It's still NYC afterall:D .
No lie--my kid was going around saying "you lookin at me?" by the end of the summer--um, he'll not be going there next summer. I'll take my chances on my side of the tracks.
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